Television systems are known which comprise in particular a television using digital technology and allowing a user to benefit from interactive services offered by specific providers. These services are transmitted either by way of the frame flyback signal within the domain of analogue television, or in digital data packets within the domain of digital television. These services are available via computer applications which are either stored on storage means installed in the television, or downloaded and then executed by a specific electronic device of the television. To avoid having to reload the data, the storage can be performed in a retentive memory.
However, each interactive service requires the recording of data, even when the corresponding application is not currently being executed. Consequently, it is necessary to provide storage means which are either local or remote but can be accessed by the television. However, these storage means afford limited storage capacity. Consequently, the storage means may be saturated. The solution consisting in increasing the dimensions of the storage means is not satisfactory in so far as the number of applications tends to increase and/or to require a bigger memory space and in so far as the storage means give rise to extra cost and additional bulk.
The object of the present invention is therefore to alleviate the drawbacks of the prior art by providing an automatic memory management system for interactive service applications.